Consumers WTP for wine with certified origin: Latent classes based on attitudinal responses

This paper investigates preference heterogeneity of wine consumers by using latent class models based onattitudinal questions. Such responses turn out to be an important source of additional information when the goalis to identify different groups of people with a similar wine preference structure. We assume that preferences arelatent and the responses to attitudinal questions are the visible effect of this latent heterogeneity. We find evidenceof 4 different classes of respondents with similar response patterns. We focus on preferences for a well-knownwine, the Prosecco, and sample the population in the area of production. For each preference-class we estimatea class-specific WTP equation for this wine, so as to estimate the class responsiveness of WTP to variousdeterminants. Estimates for a 4-class model are discussed in detail to illustrate the potential of this approach incharacterizing the preferences of local consumers for the two most common certifications of origin.